PORTLAND — A 22-year-old man has been sentenced to life in prison for helping kill his cousin’s great-grandmother with a sledgehammer in her suburban Portland home.
Micus Ward was given the sentence Monday without the possibility of parole. He had been found guilty of murder and aggravated murder in the 2013 death of 71-year-old Jacqueline Bell.
Ward’s cousin, Joda Cain, was convicted of manslaughter in the killing and sentenced to 10 years in prison last October.
Prosecutors say Cain, who had been living with Bell, persuaded Ward to come to Oregon from Kansas to help kill the woman.
Ward’s attorney called the life sentence unconstitutional, arguing that his client has an intellectual disability that contributed to his actions the night of the crime. Ward has an IQ of 59.
